Customs official’s dismissal a challenge to merit system

The arbitrary dismissal of accountant-lawyer Emma Rosqueta from her post as deputy Customs Commissioner, after 39 years of efficient performance in the bureau, appears to mark a 180-degree turn in pushing the civil service merit system.

Civil service analysts say her removal from office challenges the merit system in government service and violates principles protected by existing laws.

That Rosqueta, who joined the government in 1962 as a Customs examiner, chose to carry on her battle through the courts has earned for her points in the bureaucracy.

In her sworn statement before the Court of Appeals, where her case has been elevated, Rosqueta quoted settled jurisprudence which underscored that security of tenure, with the merit and fitness rule, "is a basic feature of the civil service scheme" adopted in the Philippines.

She stressed that if established principles protecting security of tenure were to be disregarded or waived, "this can be done only on the basis of clear constitutional grounds."

The holder of three civil service eligibilities and passer of three government exams, including first place in the Customs broker test, has said the civil service system in the country "rest on the principle of the application of the merit system instead of the spoils system in the matter of appointment and tenure of office."

She added she has not been informed of the reason, under the existing Civil Service Law, why she was being dismissed – against the backdrop of her selfless devotion and commitment to the various tasks assigned to her since 1962.

She has asked the Court of Appeals "to prevent (the injustice" in her case where she has been arbitrarily removed and supposedly replaced by an outsider. – PNA